A Little Bite of Magic Goes a Long Way (BxB)

18 ~ Ben

"What the hell? What the hell was that thing?"

I stood at Volkir's side, staring at the brick barrier blocking my door.

"What should we do? Should we call Annabel? or Ari? Or—"

"The first thing we should do is compose ourselves," Volkir said with infuriating calmness. "We can be of little help to Matt if we are senseless with fear."

Given that he seemed as composed as ever, and I could barely stand, I was pretty sure that when he said 'we' he just meant me, but it was diplomatic of him to include himself.

Standing before the barrier, he pressed his hands against it and ran his fingers around the edges of the splintered doorframe, a slight frown dipping the corners of his mouth.

A mouth that had only recently drawn blood from the man I loved. The man who at this moment was locked on the other side of a brick wall, trapped at the mercy of some monster. A monster that, even now, might be—

Volkir sighed, let his hands drop, and turned to face me, his frown deepening.

"You know, Benjamin, you will lead a much happier—and possibly a longer—life if you learn to relax. I can hear your heart racing from all the way over here."

"Relax!? How the fuck am I supposed to relax when Matt is—"

He sighed again and held out his hand to me. "Benjamin, come here."

"What?" I stared at him, mouth agape.

"I said, come here."

This time he put some sort of command in his tone, and I found my feet carrying me forward, right into his arms. He took me lightly by the shoulders and looked into my eyes, then pulled me a little closer, so that we stood almost, but not quite, touching.

"Relax," he said, quite close to my ear.

The effect was instantaneous.

It was as if I'd been standing in a crowded room, a cacophony of voices crowding me from every side, leaving me unable to properly think, or to feel anything but the suffocating press of fear. Then all of that had fallen away, and I found myself in solitude and silence, somewhere open and edgeless, like the top of a mountain, or the middle of a tranquil sea. 

Somewhere I could breathe.

"Learn this feeling, Benjamin," Volkir said, breathing slow and deep, and seeming to drag my breath along with his. "Take it within you and give it room to grow. You should learn from our dear Matt, as well. If you look for things to fear, you will find them; if you look for things to love, you will find that, too."

He let me go, releasing both his physical and mental hold. I stepped back and the effect of his power faded, as did the feeling of tranquility and peace.

As it did, I realized two things.

First, he had not forced the feeling on me; he had shared it. It was his own inner state.

Second, I realized I had a choice. I could hang on to it—learn it, as he had said—or I could let it go and allow my fear to return. It was already creeping back, and I knew it wouldn't simply disappear. Volkir was afraid, too. He simply didn't let it rule him the way I did.

I took a deep breath. "Alright. What should we do?"

It was the same question I'd asked before, only now I was ready to hear an answer, and to listen.

Volkir regarded me with slightly narrowed eyes, and I got the feeling he was assessing me somehow. Finally, he took a deep breath and something about his stance almost imperceptibly relaxed. I got the sense that I had avoided danger of some kind, though I was unsure exactly what. I decided not to underestimate him again.

He turned back to the bricked-up door. "There may not be much we can do," he said. "Djinn are powerful creatures—capricious and possessive. If this one wants to keep us out, I think it will succeed. It seems to have taken an interest in Matt. We may simply have to trust him to work things out on his own."

"On his own?" I repeated, already beginning to lose the little bit of calm Volkir had given me. "Are you kidding me? He can't even change a lightbulb without dying, for fuck's sake. I left him alone for a day and he managed to get bitten by a goddamn vampire and kidnapped by a—a—djinn, or whatever. How am I supposed to trust him to work things out on his own?"

Volkir was silent a moment, studying the wall, tapping it lightly with his fingertips, and then stepped back a pace. When he spoke it was with a thoughtful, almost reverent tone.

"Like the djinn, our dear Matthew is...capricious. His mind works differently than most. Rather than follow the logical, straightforward road that others have paved for him, he is like a butterfly, flitting from one bright, pretty thing to the next, seemingly without a clear path. And yet he manages to find his way. Trying to chase him down and force him to do otherwise is futile and exhausting, and you will only end up hating him for it if you try. It is much better to simply sit back and enjoy the splendor of his flight."

"What are you even saying?" I asked, exasperated. For one thing, Matt wasn't our Matthew. He was mine. "Can you speak without using a fucking metaphor in every sentence?"

He sighed, exploring the edges of the doorframe once more. "Matthew is more formidable than you imagine," he said. "Perhaps you have heard the phrase, 'a charmed life'? Well, I do believe that Matt's life is charmed." He turned towards me again. "We cannot help him, but even so." He shrugged. "One way or another, everything will be alright."

My breath escaped me in a laugh, and with it, the last of my strength. I slid down beside the banister on the top step of the porch, leaning against it to hold myself up.

"That's his favorite song," I said, tears pricking my eyes and making my voice painfully tight.

"I beg your pardon?" Volkir had given up with the wall and stood above me.

"Bob Marley," I said. "Everything's Gonna Be Alright. He loves that song."

To my astonishment, Volkir laughed softly and then lowered himself to sit at my side, sliding his arm around my back.

"Why am I not surprised?" he asked.

And that's how, with the sun just beginning to burn off the morning mist and chase it back out to sea, I ended up sitting on my front porch, locked out of my own house by a djinn, with the vampire who only recently defiled my lover offering me comfort at my side, and the love of my life locked away beyond the reach of my help.

In that moment, I was certain of only one thing.

One way or another, as corny as it sounds, this would be the first day of the rest of my life.